Tableau vivant

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A "group" from the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg 1890

A tableau vivant (French "living image", plural tableaux vivants ) is a representation of works of painting and sculpture by living people. This fashion emerged towards the end of the 18th century.

definition

Tableau vivant “Germanenzug” (arrangement: Albert Baur ; decoration: Andreas Achenbach ) from a festival at the artists' association Malkasten on the occasion of a visit by Kaiser Wilhelm I in Düsseldorf, 1877

Meyers Konversations-Lexikon names Madame de Genlis , the educator of the children of the Duke of Orleans, as the inventor . She is said to have arranged such representations for the instruction and entertainment of her pupils, with the help of the painters Jacques-Louis David and Jean-Baptiste Isabey . The public imitations of ancient statues by Lady Hamilton , who often stood as models for paintings and also brought the art of keeping still to the stage, became better known. The actress Henriette Hendel-Schütz became known for similar portrayals . In the first half of the 1860s, the French photographer Olympe Aguado created such tableaux vivants, popular with the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie, which he staged with his family but were never exhibited.

Living pictures in the narrower sense are not solo performances ( attitudes ), but group pictures. Since the 18th century, the performances of the Oberammergau Passion Play have included numerous living images from the Old Testament in an uninterrupted tradition. In the 19th century, living images became a central means of scenic design, on the theater stage as well as at courtly or civil celebrations. They were integral parts of military parades, stage and ballroom dances. Appropriate lighting and musical accompaniment were of some importance for its effect. Jean Sibelius composed his tone poem Finlandia (1900) for a series of living pictures.

Above all, living images were used to show a clear conclusion to moving actions. A common sight in 19th century theater was an immobile group of actors as the curtain fell. For this purpose, the instruction "Group" is in the text book. To this day, dancers after a dance or artists to applause after a successful trick form a group (the so-called compliment ).

Image templates

Group in a printed director's book from 1841

In “group books”, living pictures were recommended for any occasion for imitation, sometimes with ribbons and similar props. The early gymnastics consisted in part of studying living images, for example with patriotic subjects. In some sports, remnants of tradition have been preserved to this day.

Posing to the national anthem or for a photo comes from the tradition of living images. In photography , the expression “living images” is sometimes used for a posed, particularly symbolic composition that is reminiscent of history painting or genre painting .

revue

At the beginning of the 20th century, living images achieved sensationalism when they were presented by nude actors, such as Olga Desmond . In the revue , naked people were tolerated as long as they did not move, for example in the Windmill Theater London, as shown in the film Lady Henderson (2005).

Today's distribution

Living statues in Madrid

Up to the present day, living images have remained popular in the art form of living statues , which often appear as street artists or as walking acts at festivals, trade fairs or similar events. The attraction here is to remain in a motionless pose for an unusually long time, which can occasionally be interrupted by a surprising, mostly deliberately sparing interaction with the audience (e.g. a wink). However, ensemble performances by several people are rather the exception in this area.

See also

literature

  • Joanna Barck: Towards the film - back to the pictures. Talbeaux Vivants: “Living Images” in films by Antamoro, Korda, Visconti and Pasolini. Bielefeld: Transcript Film, 2008, ISBN 389942817X .
  • Bettina Brandl-Risi: BilderScenen. Tableaux vivants between the visual arts, theater and literature in the 19th century . Freiburg i. Breisgau 2013.
  • Bettina Brandl-Risi, Gabriele Brandstetter, Stefanie Diekmann (eds.): Hold it! - On the pose between image and performance . Berlin 2012.
  • Sabine Folie, Michael Glasmeier: Tableaux vivants. Living images and attitudes in photography, film and video, (exhibition catalog) Kunsthalle Wien, 2002.
  • Kirsten Gram Holmström: Monodrama, Attitudes, Tableaux vivants. Studies on Some Trends of Theatrical Fashion 1770-1815. Uppsala: Almquist & Wiksell, 1967.
  • Philine Helas: Living Pictures in the Italian Festival Culture of the 15th Century , Berlin: Akademie-Verlag 1999 (also dissertation Berlin, Humboldt University 1997), ISBN 3-05-003408-4 .
  • Birgit Jooss : Living Pictures. Physical imitation of group pictures in Goethe's time. Berlin: Reimer 1999, ISBN 3496011971 .
  • Birgit Jooss: Living pictures as character descriptions in Goethe's novel “Die Wahlverwandschaften” . In: storytelling and knowledge. Paradigms and aporias of their staging in Goethe's 'Elective Affinities' . Edited by Gabriele Brandstetter, Freiburg im Breisgau 2003, pp. 111-136.
  • Birgit Jooss: The solidification of the body into a tableau. Living pictures in performances . In: Performance and Image - Performance as an Image . Edited by Christian Janecke , Berlin 2004, pp. 272–303.
  • Birgit Jooss: Between ideal of art and sensual pose - living images and attitudes of the Goethe era . In: Standstill and Movement. Intermedial studies on the theatricality of text, images and music . Edited by Günther Heeg and Anno Mungen, Munich 2004, pp. 103–113.
  • Birgit Jooss: “Meaningful and delightful festival”. Living pictures in photography . In: La Bohème. The staging of the artist in photographs from the 19th and 20th centuries . Edited by Bodo von Dewitz, Göttingen 2010, pp. 85-89 (English: pp. 344-345). 
  • Birgit Jooss: Tableaux and attitudes as a source of inspiration for staged photography in the 19th century , In: Rollebilder - role-playing games , ed. by Toni Stooss and Esther Ruelfs, Munich: Hirmer 2011, pp. 14–39, ISBN 978-3-7774-4221-1
  • Edmund Wallner: Four hundred subjects for living pictures. […] 2 vols. Erfurt: Bartholomäus 1876–81, (group book).

Web links

Commons : Tableau vivant  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Musée d'Orsay , collections, work descriptions, Olympe Aguado, reading , online , accessed February 16, 2016.